Questioning saint-like and fantastic heroes…
David Brighton of the David Bowie tribute band,
Entitled The Punk Meets The Godfather (a pun on Beat Godfather Meets Glitter Mainman, a two-way Rolling Stone interview between David Bowie and William Burroughs from 1974) it’s a great read which can be reached by clicking on the image of Ken and David above.
Here’s a couple of excerpts to give you a flavour just in case you’re a bit nervous about reading the whole thing in one great big chunk…
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DB: Some artists can be pretty intense during the recording process. Can you share with us how Bowie and the various Spiders carried themselves in the studio – and given their various personalities and temperaments, what kind of challenges you faced in drawing the best performances out of them?
KS: Working with the right team makes any producer/engineer’s life easy. We had fun. We quickly learned each others strengths and weaknesses and from there we could let it all happen. Let’s face it, when you have a vocalist like “one take” Bowie and a guitarist like Ronno how hard can it be? Then add Woody and Trevor to the mix. Fun, fun, fun.
DB: Did you give Bowie much input on how he might best approach a particular vocal in the studio?
KS: Are you f*%@ing kidding? Why would I do that?
DB: Bowie was playing the role of the ‘wild mutation’ during the years you worked with him. Did any of his much publicized personal eccentricities enter in at all during in your experiences working with him? Or was it purely a musical experience?
KS: Personal eccentricities? We’re Brits. Eccentricities are our life blood! Seriously though, the answer to the question is a big fat “No”. Professional through and through. We were all there with one purpose in mind. “Sex, Drugs and Rock ‘n’ Roll”………. came after, and only after, we completed the recording.
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Thanx David. Meanwhile, if you thought that was actually the real DB on the right in the shot above, don’t worry, you won’t have been the first to have been thrown by Mr Brighton’s likeness to Mr Bowie…